The present invention relates generally to a digital data processing system or a data processing method including apparatus or steps for transferring data or instruction information between a plurality of computers, and more particularly to a plurality of computers located at distant sites, wherein the plurality of computers transfer data between each other.
Currently available file transfer systems, such as mailbox data systems, may not provide a high level of redundancy and easy access to the data contained within the mailbox. Typical high availability file transfer systems support an active-passive configuration across two datacenters to allow the data to be backed up at the passive data center from the active data center. In this configuration, the active data center is the data center that receives requests from users during the operations of the active data center and the user does not interact with the passive data center unless the active data center fails, causing the user communications to be redirected towards the passive data center. Using an active-passive type configuration for the data centers may cause a waste of resources, because the hardware for the passive data center may be underutilized by not having a user interact with the passive data center when the active data center has not failed. Another drawback is that for some users, the passive data center may be closer to their physical locations providing a faster experience, but the user will only interact with the active data center.